I put both the 1st and 2nd chapters out at about the same time because they're both essentially like two halves of a Pilot Episode. Reviews would be appreciated, though Anonymous reviews, especially Flames, will be ignored and/or deleted.

Manhattan
June 27, 13:05 EST

Sophomore year at Cascades High School had ended a couple weeks ago, and Summer Vacation, the academic break most waited all year for finally came around. Looking out at the city, you could almost never tell that Manhattan was once the sight of the worst viral epidemic in all of recorded history. While the death count wasn't as high as the Bubonic Plague that ravaged Europe during the Dark Ages, the Bubonic Plague never turned humans into FLESH EATING ZOMBIES! Of course, at the moment this story's protagonist wasn't looking out at the city, but was sitting on his bed in the re-purposed guest room, country music playing off an old radio sitting on the window sill as he stared at a poster of the Justice League's founding members on the opposite wall to his bed. *thunk* As he threw darts at it.

"Take that Batman." *thunk* "Take that Superman." *thunk* "Take that Aquaman." *thunk* "Take that-

"Quit your bitchin' Nancy. We get it, you don't like super heroes," a brown-haired muscle-bound man with green eyes sneered as he walked by the open doorway.

'I've really got to learn to close that thing,' the brunette thought throwing his last dart. *thunk* It hit Aquaman two for two.

*Knock-knock* "Hey, Virgil," a blond-haired teen with blue eyes said poking his head in through the doorway and knocked on the door. "Are you upset about something."

"No. I'm not," the brunette returned poignantly.

"Come on, bro, the only time you mount an all-out assault on the League is when you're upset," Daniel said running his fingers through his hair as he sat down on his younger sibling's bed. "Talking will make you feel better."

"I'm just thinking how big a joke the Justice League is in its entirety," he said throwing another dart. This one landed in the middle of Superman's insignia. "Growing up, without my real mom and dad, I always wondered where the heroes were, the ones in the capes and tights that saved people when they were bleeding out in the front seat. And then I remembered, they don't save most people. They only save people when it's convenient for them, don't have to go too far off the beaten path, and beneficial to their egos. If they did save everyone, there wouldn't be war orphans, or those left in Foster Care to swim through the system because their parents get killed."

"Hey, come on, man, you're starting to sound like that Godfrey guy."

"And why shouldn't I? I mean just look at these assholes, walking around all high and mighty with their super hero social club and their fancy schmancy Hall of Justice. Bah, if there were any justice in this world, the asshole that killed my parents wouldn't have gotten the slap on the wrist like he did and get off Scott free," he said walking up to the board, plucking the darts before sitting back on his bed and juggling them over in his hand. "I mean first you've got Superman," he sneered at the red and blue-clad superhero. "This guy has got to be the biggest Gary Stu of all time. Guy's got super strength, laser vision, ice breath, is everything-proof except for some obscure magical space-rock, and if he became the filling of a planet sandwich the guy'd probably just shrug it off."

"Oh come on, now you're just exaggerating," Daniel said shaking your head.

"And if that wasn't enough, the guy creeps me the fuck out," the brunette added with a shudder.

" . . . Why exactly?"

"The guy wears underwear on the outside of his pants and smiles that creepy Superman smile in the presence of small children," the brunette said holding two darts in his fingers before flicking his wrist *thwak-thud*, one dart landing in Superman's lap and the other on his smiling face. "Creeps me the fuck out."

"I'll agree that under certain contexts Superman can be a bit creepy, but does it mean he deserves the kind of punishment you're subjecting his poster to?"

"Superman's just the start. The rest are next," Virgil said juggling his darts in his hand before turning his aim to the left. "Batman, whoever he is, has money out the wazu to afford on all that bat-themed crap he totes around, yet instead of investing it into Gotham's police force or tearing down all the abandoned buildings and shit that criminals-on-the-run use for hidey holes, he runs around on a self-indulgent quest for vengeance dressed up like a winged rodent. On top of that he and his child sidekick wear spandex, and they spend all night together. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to know what's going on there."

"So the guy has a few unresolved issues. Everyone does."

"And then we turn our attention to the Flash," he said as though he were the color commentator on a play-by-play. "The guy's covered head-to-toe in skin-tight red spandex and lightning bolts, yet somehow he finds a way streak everything he goes. Hasn't the guy ever heard it's better to conceal than to reveal?" he asked his foster brother incredulously, who simply shrugged his shoulders. "Seriously, if the guy forgot to put on pants one morning, he could moon half the US in a cross-country streak and no one'd be able to cover their eyes in time."

"Aren't you getting a little too graphic?"

"And then there's Aquaman, Ruler of the Oceans," he said after hitting Flash right on his bulls-eye lightning bolt insignia. "The guy rules two thirds of the world, yet without any water he's just another incompetent. I mean, there are all those whalers and shit killing endangered species outside Japan, yet not once does he capsize their ships and perform a public execution when the cameras are rolling."

"Wouldn't that be bad for the environment?"

"And then we have Wonder Woman."

"Oh come on, what do you have against her, she's gorgeous!" Daniel protested, although taking a closer look at the poster he noticed she was the only hero not riddled with pock marks from angrily-thrown darts. At most the dart marks simply surrounded it, like in the old cartoons where projectiles traced an outline around the person they were meant to hit.

"It isn't her looks that I have a problem with, it's how contradictory she is," the brunette said juggling his darts before letting one fly *thud* the pointed projectile landing between hers and the Green Lantern's head. "She claims to represent equality between men and women, yet she's dressed like one of Captain America's show girls from World War Two."

"I always thought that was some kind of magic battle armor," Daniel admitted.

"Colored red, white, and blue with stars, all at the same time? Not likely," the brunette huffed. "Really, you think she could put on a jacket or something, because she looks a little too patriotic to be one of the Amazons from Greek legend."

"Though you have to admit that strapless bustier looks good on her," the blond chuckled, earning a look from his brother. "What? You just said she was the League's eye candy."

"No, I didn't. You just said she was the League's eye candy. In fact every time we've had this talk in the past, you've brought that same point up."

"Moving on...! Who's next on your shit list for crappy heroism?" Daniel said changing the subject.

"The guy who looks like St. Patrick's day threw up on him," he said tossing a dart in his hand. "The guy's power ring or whatever the fuck it's called can turn imagination or willpower or whatever it is into reality, but half the times he's less imaginative than a ten year old. Beams and walls? Yeah, like that doesn't get old fast enough. Really, a comic book artist would be a way better superhero than him. At least then Green Lantern wouldn't look like a colossal douche."

"And what about this guy, or are you telling me you have xenophobia?" Daniel asked as his brother chucked darts at the lantern insignia and his ring hand.

"Dude, there is no freaking way that's what Martian Manhunter really looks like," Virgil growled as he juggled his last two darts in his hand. "For all we know his true form could look like something out of Dead Space, and when no one's looking he eats people," the brunette said throwing the last two darts, nailing him in the right arm and left leg; a method which in most cases worked pretty well for Isaac Clarke when it came to dealing with the alien Necromorphs.

" . . . Feel better?" Daniel asked once the last of the brunette's supply of sharp and pointy objects had been exhausted. It wasn't that he was scared of his younger foster brother who his family took care of for money. It was just that the younger brunette was a better archer than he was, though he didn't want to admit it. His aim was something else when he put the effort in.

"I actually do, yes," the brunette said with a sigh, his gaze turning to what hung on his wall above his bead. "God, our big camping trip can't come soon enough, can it?" he asked anxiously, his heel bouncing up and down off the floor as he looked at the Folding Ranger X Compound Bow mounted on the wall, which he'd received last Christmas after he'd taken an interest in archery.

"Looking forward to killing something with those fixed-blade broadhead arrows, are we?" Daniel asked.

"I'm hoping to bring in a nice slab of venison for dinner after we step out of Manhattan, maybe get adopted for real this year," the brunette motioning to the quiver he kept hung up below his bow and at an angle. "Hey Daniel..."

"Yeah?"

"Do you ever get that gut feeling that something really bad is about to happen?" he asked holding his stomach as he looked out the window to the neighborhood below. Back in 2008, there were tanks, and Marines, and infected flesh-eating zombies running around spilling blood, guts, and sinew all over the place. It was amazing anyone stayed, but with the dropping price and availability of real estate, the opportunists out there looking for a good home capitalized on the opportunity presented to them.

"Like what? Another Outbreak?"

"Well... Alex Mercer is still at large. The fact that the Justice League didn't help in the slightest is also worrying," the brunette said flipping through channels in the small TV of his room. "What if he comes back and causes another Outbreak like last time? The roads and transportation lines will get blown again, and we're all going to be stuck here with our asses hanging in the wind."

"Virgil, we're talking about the most wanted terrorist in the history of terrorists. I highly doubt he'd come back to the same place he made his terrorist debut, simply for the fun of it," Daniel replied shaking his head.

"Maybe you're right..." Virgil said laying down on his bed and staring at the ceiling. "I don't know whether it was coincidence or not, but the First Outbreak happened on the Fourth of July. No matter how you look at it, that had to be a giant middle finger to the US of A."

"Yeah, life is funny that way," the blond said brushing back his hair, an old habit he developed to keep his hair out of his eyes while he practiced archery "Hey, you wanna play some ODST?"

"Dibs on Sgt. Johnson!"

"Oh, damnit, you always get Johnson."

"Need I remind you of the International Dibs Protocol?"

" . . . No."

"Good. Then let's get this party started," the brunette said starting up his old, but still operable, XBOX 360. Of course, if he knew what was soon to come, he'd be more inclined to let that one slide, and focus more on getting his adoptive family as far away from Manhattan as physically possible within time constraints.

Of course, hindsight was 20/20 perfect.

NeoNazo356: It's chapter two, and we've seen another glimpse of who Virgil Valentine really is. I'll say right now, he's not a self-insert by any definition, his backstory was detailed for the sake of being detailed and giving him a sense of cultural diversity. Virgil's foster family (and past families) are all OCs as well, and any similarities to actual persons both real or dead are purely coincidental. The North Korean family though was a reference to "The Big Bang Theory", Season 3 Episode 22, episode 62 overarching; that's the main exception.

Spaceman: I've scene the opening for the Big Bang, but I never watched an episode. There are a few OCs in the story, but most are reimagined characters from other franchises. The introduction of various elements leads to different histories and different characters. Sounding smart, huh?

NeoNazo356: And though Virgil may throw darts at superhero posters when he needs to vent, he isn't stroking a murder boner or anything, he just isn't into the hero-worship like everyone else. The niche that he falls into will become more defined as time passes, and his future interactions will shape not only who he becomes, but will shape who others become in his eyes and vice versa.

Spaceman: Virgil proves the point that heroes can't be everywhere and save everyone. He doesn't have the blind faith in them and after going threw the mess that is his life, it's less likely he will ever will. This Hunter-verse is a darker world, so one can expect a darker outlook.

NeoNazo356: A closing statement to end this Author's Commentary. Like in Young Justice, "timestamps" will be used to help illustrate the passing of time and difference in locales. The template used is the same as in Young Justice, though the year will only be added at the start of each new year, or when it actually matters. I'm also contemplating on using timestamps to help illustrate flashbacks as opposed to a (Flashback Start)/(Flashback End) prompt, though I'll have to actually get to that point before deciding for certain.